


Duty Before Pleasure

by enigmaticagentscully



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 03:24:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2797787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enigmaticagentscully/pseuds/enigmaticagentscully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He doesn't approve of killing purely in self-defence. Angelus' POV for the episode 'Passion'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duty Before Pleasure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Roca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roca/gifts).



 

_They say if you look into a dead man’s eyes, the last thing he saw will be reflected there._

To her credit, Jenny Calendar at least tried to run. But she was clumsy with fear and slow, so slow. Humans always were. At the least it afforded him some small amusement.

_Is the opposite true? If I look into the eyes of a murderer, will I see his dead? A thousand last gasps, words unspoken dying on lips, hearts beating down to zero. Will I hear their pounding feet? Choke on their fear?_

He caught her quickly, tired of running. This one was important, after all.

_When I look into his eyes, will I see them?_

Angelus could feel the woman’s breath quickening on his hand. He could hear the frantic pulse of blood through her veins.

“Sorry Jenny, this is where you get off.”

Her eyes, wide and terrified, locked with his.

_Just my own reflection._

* * *

 

 

“I never get tired of doing that.”

Angelus shrugged away the tension in his muscles and glanced down at the body, crumpled on the floor.

There was always a rush from doing this, snatching a life away from someone. Watching the light fade from their eyes. Stealing their future, everything they could have been, in one swift stroke. Even more so when it was someone you knew – since he’d been back in business all he’d killed were girls from clubs and bars, so easily lured away by a pretty face and smooth line. Too easy. Little more than snacks. He had been living like an animal, killing only to feed or those that got in his way. This…this was where he truly existed. This was the centre of his artistry. He _knew_ Jenny Calendar. No…Janna, that was her name, according to Drusilla. A gypsy. Who would have thought? He seemed plagued by them.

Angelus paused briefly to ponder how long it would take to rid the world of all the remaining Kalderash people. Dru would probably be up for it.

Yes, he knew this woman, lying dead at his feet. He knew her work, her family, her friends, her passions, her fears. He knew everything she had and he had reached out and taken it from her. A snap of the neck and she was gone. In that moment he could feel her future splintering away, a thousand possibilities cut short in an intoxicating rush of power.

And now he felt…deflated.

Maybe he should have drawn it out for longer, while they were here. Or maybe not. The devious bitch was a real threat to him, though he hated to admit it, and she had been far too close for comfort to chaining him to a soul again. Best dealt with quickly. Angelus grinned. He was getting responsible in his old age. What _would_ Darla have thought? The gypsy girl who had started all this had entertained the two of them for hours.

But then, those were simpler times.

Well, just because he hadn’t had time to play before didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun now. He reached down, hefted the body over his shoulder, and strode off down the corridor, whistling a jaunty tune.

 

* * *

 

 

Roses.

Wine.

Music.

The perfect romantic night in.

The music was a nice touch, and somehow the stage seemed incomplete without it, though it turned out to be more trouble than he had anticipated. In the time it took him to work out how to put the music player on repeat, he considered Darla. Thinking of her before had brought back memories. Working alone had its benefits, but there was nothing quite like a captive audience.

Darla, despite her wonderfully evil little mind, never really _understood_. Her joy lay in the finer things in life, in taking what she wanted, when she wanted. To her, humans were boring, at best little more than passing amusements, like a new dress or an entertaining play. She was all about the fun, and she played his games because it amused her that it amused him. It delighted her that she had sired something so creatively wicked, something that brought them both an infamy she had never enjoyed as merely her Master’s pet. But she had never understood his fascination with the humans, his endless insatiable desire to produce in them the most exquisite suffering. To visit upon them such horrors that they would know his name and shudder. So that he would be the darkness they feared personified.

Drusilla understood. Drusilla understood everyone, and everything, and in consequence understood nothing at all. Perhaps that was part of the reason he had sired her in the first place… she was his greatest creation, and she alone had some small insight into the darker workings of his mind. The rest – the vampires who scuttled around the mansion like tiny fish flocking beside sharks – they truly were little better than animals. Worse, they were little better than _humans._ They didn’t understand how the game was played, and so became pieces, not players.

And Angelus could play them, as he could anyone he chose. He knew exactly how to get inside their heads, exactly how to destroy them from the inside out. To burn the fight out of them without ever throwing a punch.

He looked around at his work, tilting his head to examine the scene. Perfect.

He vaguely considered waiting around to snap the Watcher’s neck too, but decided against it. That was boring, predictable. The kind of thing Spike would do, wait around for a decent fight. More to the point, it was what Spike would want _him_ to do, so the opportunity to annoy that idiot alone was worth it. Spike was a lot less fun than he remembered. Perhaps it was being one half of a pair for so long that did it. Women. Hardly worth the trouble. Speaking of which...

Angelus closed the door carefully behind him, and strolled into the night, moving faster now he was relieved of his burden. The night was crisp and clear and glittering with stars, and he knew the way so well he hardly troubled to pay attention to his route. He was in a good mood. A night’s excellent entertainment with the bonus of getting rid of a troubling threat.

He was glad he had taken the time to have a bit of fun with the teacher after all. Killing her just for his own protection felt uncomfortably prosaic, though he could at least be safe in the knowledge that Buffy wouldn’t know why. With any luck, his little show would liven things up a bit, and make enough of an impression that she wouldn’t question his motives too deeply. Since when did the infamous Angelus need a reason for murder? And this would have to be a blow to her pride at least, killing one of her own. After all, Buffy and her gang of do-gooders had forced him to stake Darla himself. Not that it really mattered, of course, but things were less fun without her around. Surely that alone deserved a little retribution? He could hardly kill Buffy’s lover, at least not without a level of dedication to her suffering that even he wasn’t quite willing to show, but he could at least see just how well Watcher boy did without his little girlfriend. His mouth curled into a smirk as he imagined the look on Giles’ face when he figured out what had happened. Maybe he should have stuck around after all, just to see.

But no, this was Buffy’s party.

He owed her that, a little pain to remind her of the penalty for trying to tame him. A message, then, as well as a precaution. Two birds with one stone, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> My dear friend Sophie challenged me to do a fic from Angelus' perspective in the episode 'Passion'. It's a short one, but it turned out to be one of the more difficult things I've had to write! I found it surprisingly hard to get inside Angelus' head and it was a weird experience, but I hope in the end I managed to capture his arrogant, playfully evil, contradictory nature. Feedback on this one would be very much appreciated :)


End file.
